About this book:
(from Jonathan Ball Publishers)
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever.
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be…you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
My thoughts:
Being a huge fan of Viola Davis, I just HAD to get my hands on this book. But, I also approached it with a bit of trepidation – is this public figure and multi-award-winning actress the warrior goddess that I hype her up to be in my mind or will I be disillusioned?
Right from the very first words in the very first chapter, uttered defiantly by 8-year old Voila I was assured. Yes, this is the badass woman I know her to be!
From the get-go you are drawn into Viola’s brutal reality growing up, and it was quite a shocker. She shares intimate details of her experiences growing up in gut-wrenching poverty, and as a result, have to face abuse, shame, racism and sexism.
If I had to highlight and annotate each sentence and paragraph in this book that personally affected me, there would be very few sections or pages that were kept untouched.
“I held on to what I had, all that I had, the team effort with my older sisters. That preserved me. We were a girl-posse, fighting, clawing our way out of the invisibility of poverty and a world where we didn’t fit in. The world was our enemy. We were survivors.”
Viola very quickly had to learn to stand up for herself, and made the conscious decision that she refuse to be the product of her personal circumstances. She found acting to be her salvation.
The eight-year-old girl who had never been told “You’re worthy; you’re beautiful” suddenly found herself as a leading lady, and a mouthpiece for all the women who looked like her. I had no weapons to slay those naysayers, to change culture itself. The obstacle blocking me was a four-hundred-year-old racist system of oppression and my own feeling of utter aloneness. My art, in this instance, was the best healing tool to resolve my past, the best weapon that I had to conquer my present, and my gift to the future.
The eight-year-old girl who had never been told “You’re worthy; you’re beautiful” suddenly found herself as a leading lady, and a mouthpiece for all the women who looked like her. I had no weapons to slay those naysayers, to change culture itself. The obstacle blocking me was a four-hundred-year-old racist system of oppression and my own feeling of utter aloneness. My art, in this instance, was the best healing tool to resolve my past, the best weapon that I had to conquer my present, and my gift to the future.
I cringed at the tales of blatant racism and ‘this is not for you’-isms Viola had to endure. And we know it isn’t an exception. Talent and hard work are not enough, and every day is a struggle to make your voice heard and recognised. Even with numerous prestigious acting awards behind her name, it is/was not enough to guarantee a successful acting career. And as a double-whammy, how being one of the most successful black actresses in the WORLD, does not mean that the ever-present shadow of imposter syndrome and personal insecurities simply disappear. This is basically what this book is about – Viola’s journey of self-discovery and the search for purpose and self-love – and love.
Having read Shonda Rhimes’s Year of Yes, my anticipation levels went through the roof when Viola shared how “Shondaland” became a part of her life. The role of Annalise Keating in “How to Get Away with Murder” changed Viola’s trajectory on all possible levels.
“I felt like I had two choices: either apologize for who I was and try to alter how I looked to meet their standards and try to fit in to what the masses were saying; or I could stay true to myself and make Annalise me, what I look like, what I sound like. I was at the point in my life where I chose me. That was a huge busting-out moment. I achieved on a different level than awards. I was finding me.”
Goosebumps! And tears.
“Finding Me” is brutally honest, gritty, unapologetic. Viola is not a victim, her humanity and her capacity to forgive is beyond anything I will ever be capable of. I salute and honour you.
Thank you to Jonathan Ball Publishers for the opportunity to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.
